Tuesday, June 21, 2011

Garden Center How To - Seed Packets

Our girls have used this idea to make all kinds of packets and sachets for their pretend play. Their most repeated version is pet food, which you can see in this post.

For the garden center, we wanted to mass-produce these seed packets, so I drew them out and scanned them. This way I could print out multiple copies for all three girls to color. Again, coloring and cutting along the dotted lines kept them very happy while I worked on other parts of the project.

Like real seed packets, these show the type of seed in the front

and instructions on the back. You are welcome to print out the templates here.

Emily made some plant food packets along the same lines.

When the kids are done coloring, they might need some help to fold and glue the sides of the packet closed. Leave the top open so the packets can be filled. We used a paper cone funnel - it kept frustration at bay.

We filled ours with rice and beans, because that's what we had sitting around in the kitchen. You could also fill them with cut up bits of paper, or paper beads like we did in the vet clinic. Or real beads. If you were going for the more authentic sort of garden center (e.g. in an actual school module), you could even use real seeds. Sunflower seeds, for example, are bountiful and easy to harvest from last year's sunflowers.

Emily was all excited and wanted to make a rotating display stand for the seed packets like she'd seen in actual garden centers, but that would have been a project for another day. She was finally happy to just arrange them on a tray.

I hope you enjoyed the garden center! We had more ideas but decided that after two days, it was time to move on. I'll update the mail Garden Center post to include links to all four tutorials. We're going to make popsicle stick baskets, sun paper prints and papier mache bowls in the coming days. On the sewing front, I'm planning to make the girls neoprene daypacks so they can carry around their sunglasses and small treats and maybe a small bottle of water when we are at the park. Lots to keep us busy!

1 comment:

How adorable. One Christmas many many years ago we did seed packets for the Grandmas from seeds harvested from Herbs and flowers. Ours were similar.... the children had fun writing the names and coloring flowers on them. The Grandmas loved it.

Hello and Welcome!

I am a gratefully unemployed mom of three girls, all of whom are growing up much too soon! I like piles of warm, fresh laundry, the smell of salt air near the beach where I used to live, making lists, anything round (like heads) and the quiet evenings sitting with the man of the house after the kids are in bed.

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You are welcome to link to this blog and to any post on this blog and use ONE or TWO photos for that purpose. Do not use photos of my children. You are welcome to pin images from my blog, if those photos do not have my children's faces in them. Please contact me if you want to use the text on, or more photos from, this blog. Do not post my tutorials on your sites. Do not translate tutorials from this blog into other languages on your site. The ideas and instructions in the tutorials are free - but please use them to only make stuff for yourself or for gifts and not to sell. Ta! For more information, this and this might be helpful.